Whilst it might have been tempting for management to tough this out. I have heard that one reason they decided not to was concern as to what would happen to their own jobs in an insolvency. The concessions asked for also don't look impossible. Yes it is unhelpful to Lufthansa's home base dominance strategy. But giving up slots at a time when traffic is forecast to be significantly lower is probably manageable. If some go to Ryanair then the EU can probably use that as a sop to O'Leary.